Improvement in signs for moving vehicles



E. Y. CLARK & W. A. LiL LlENDAHL.

Signs for MovingVehicles.

No.138,228. PatentedApril29,l873.

AM PHOTO umaswmc 00. MY. (meow/15.; PRoc-Ess) UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ERASTUS Y. CLARK, OF BROOKLYN AND WILLIAM A. LILLIENDAHL, OF

NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TO SAID CLARK, E. M. LILLIENDAHL, OF NEW YORK, AND J. H. BEARDSLEY,

OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN SIGNS FOR MOVING VEHICLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 138,228, dated April 29, 1873; application filed September 5, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ERASTUS Y. CLARK, of Brooklyn, E. D., in the county of Kings and State of New York, and WILLIAM A. LILLIENDAHL, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Signs for Moving Vehicles, of which the following is a specification:

The object of this invention is to provide a means whereby advertisements and other notices or announcements may be displayed in public thoroughfares, both by day and by night, with much greater prominence and legibility than is possible with any of the devices hitherto in use, and which, moreover, will be comparatively inexpensive, very durable, and not liable to injury from the ordinary vicissitudes of transit. To this end the invention consists in the combination, with a moving vehicle and a burner, lamp, or other source of illumination, of wire-cloth or gauze, having painted or otherwise formed upon it in opaque material the letters, figures, or characters constituting the advertisement or notice to which it is sought to draw attention.

Figure 1 is an external side view of a streetcarconstructed with an advertising medium and according to the principle of myinvention. Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view of one portion of the same. Fig. 3 is an internal view of one side of the same.

The vehicle, calculated for travel upon railways, tram-ways, pavements, or common roads, may be varied in construction according to the particular use for which it is designed; but for the purposes of this description it is represented as an ordinary horse or street car. The advertising means may refer, as shown in Fig. 1, to a notice of the line or route of the car; or, as shown in Fig. 3, to notices of business firms, the sale of merchandise, or other subjects of analogous nature.

In the construction of the car the boarding ordinarily used at the upper part of the sides is replaced by an oblong box .A, the two sides of which are formed of wiregauze, as indicated at a in Fig. 2, and in the bottom of which are provided one or more lamps or burners, a, laminate the interior of. the box, such illumination being plainly perceptible, even at a considerable distance, by the shining of thelight l to the light of the gauze, may be read at a much greater distance and with much less effort than letters or words provided upon the body or sides of the car in the ordinary manner. Furthermore, in the daytime, when the light in the box A is extinguished, the opaque letters, being plainly visible, serve the same purpose that any other lettering would do in the same position; and by this invention, therefore, a much more than ordinarily efficient means of notifying the public of the line or route to which the car belongs is provided. The inner side of the box A-that is to say, that opposite the one just hereinbefore described-has formed upon it, in opaque characters, like those previously herein referred to, any desired notice or advertisement, as of a business establishment, of merchandise for sale, or of industrial enterprises, or any other announcement commonly included under the term advertisement.

One or more of such notices may be provided, as shown in Fig. 3, and being made perfectly legible in the night by the semi-transparent character of the wire-gauze and the illumination of the same by the burners or lamps a, constitute'a most effective means of causing the attention of passengers in the car to be directed to suchnotice or advertisement also, in the daytime,

are extinguished, the opaque characters, being fully as plain and legible as those ordinarily formed upon wood, paper,

or metal surfaces,

which, when lighted, brightly ilwhen the lamps or burners a w a-ls may need to select or reach.

Any advertising matter may of course be displayed upon either side of the box A, and the said box may be varied in shape, size, and arrangement upon the vehicle, and in some cases, where the number of passengers is small or the matter of comfort is one of secondary importance, the box may be made to rotate the better to display the advertising matter thereon, either by hand or by appropriate gearing connected with one of the axles of the moving vehicle. The wiregauze, of which the sides of the box are made, being very strong, will noteasily fracture from the casualties ordinarily incurred in the travel of vehicles, and hence is very durable. over, comparatively inexpensive. I

When desired, but one side of the box may be devoted to the purpose hereinbefore fully set forth, and in such case such side alone It is, m ore- ;need be formed of wiregauze, and in those instances where the light used for lighting the car is provided of sufficient brilliancy the same may be used in place of the arrangement of the lamp a, being an equivalent therefor.

What we claim as our invention is The combination, with a moving vehicle and a lamp, or equivalent illuminating device, of one or more wire-gauze surfaces provided with opaque letters, signs, or characters, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

ERASTUS Y. CLARK. WM. A. LILLIENDAHL.

Witnesses INGERSOLL Looxwoon, H. O. Locxwoon. 

